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CITY OF LITTLE CANADA - PARK SYSTEM MASTER PLAN5 <br />Purpose of the Plan <br />Throughout the history of parks in this country, communities have <br />considered the costs and benefits of providing parks, trails, and open <br />space. In the late 1800s, when the City of Minneapolis was struggling <br />with how to balance these considerations, H.W.S. Cleveland (a landscape <br />architect) told the Minneapolis Park Commission the following: <br />“Look forward for a century to the time when <br />the City has a population of a million, and think <br />what will be their wants. They will have enough <br />to purchase all that money can buy, but all that <br />wealth cannot purchase a lost opportunity, or <br />restore natural features of grandeur and beauty, <br />which would then possess priceless value, and <br />which you can preserve if you but say the word <br />and save them from destruction that certainly <br />await them if you fail to utter it.” <br />Like Minneapolis, which is currently ranked as the nation’s best park <br />system by the Trust for Public Land, Little Canada was fortunate to have <br />leaders with the wisdom and foresight to develop the community’s park <br />system while the city was still young and growing. Today, Little Canada’s <br />park system is a vital part of the community. Although much of Little <br />Canada is developed and the opportunity to acquire additional parkland <br />has diminished, there is much that the City of Little Canada can and should <br />do to ensure that its park system is preserved and enhanced for present <br />and future generations. <br />This Plan follows the vision for Little Canada’s park system. It sets goals <br />and policies for attaining that vision. More specifically, this Plan serves the <br />following purposes of: <br />1. Addressing physical planning issues including the development of <br />parks, open space, and trails. Yet, it also considers related social <br />and economic issues. <br />2. Integrating the park, open space, and trail components of the City <br />into a system plan that reflects the interrelationships between those <br />components and other components of the City’s Comprehensive <br />Plan. <br />3. Providing a long‐term plan that can serve the City through the year <br />2040, but it also provides specific recommendations that address <br />current issues.